A Christmas hamper with Ciao Gusto

For the past 3 years I’ve made up my own hampers for family members, I’m not a fan of the shop bought ones as they’re made up of stuff I know our family won’t use.
But this year we’re doing something a little different, the reverse advent. It’s a simple idea , you put one store cupboard item in a box for every day of advent and then give it to someone who needs it.

We were given a £50 Ocado voucher to spend, to make up a hamper full of goodies from Ciao Gusto. So the challenge was set, the first thing I did was to contact my local food bank to ask what items they really needed, I wanted to make my hamper count. Here is a photo of food that I got, and what a collection it is. Full of pasta, Passat and other yummy goodies from Ciro Gusto.

Visit the Ciao Gusto website to discover the wonderful stories behind all their brands and lots of great recipe inspiration too!

Now for the Hamper its self, I’m sure if I was a big blogger I would would have a huge stash of hamper baskets that I could layer in beautiful material and such. No such luck here so it was off to home bargains to get a basket. It needed to be strong enough to fill it up full. So this is the basket I chose.

Then it was time to get creative and make it look pretty. This is the one thing I really struggle with so I Think I did ok ?

my finished basket.

Then it was time to fill it and I thought I may as well do two hampers, the food bank is such a worthy cause.

one hamper

Who are Ciao Gusto?Ciao Gusto is a family of famous Italian food and drinks brands, working together to tell their stories and to spread the love of Italian food around the world. Every member of Ciao Gusto is acclaimed, a brand leader in Italy. Large or small, they all share a devotion to quality. That’s why they’ve come together, sharing knowledge, passion, and their favourite Italian recipes.